Thursday, August 1, 2013

Ok, this is definitely out of the normal realm of my blog posts. No fabric or other craft materials were used. But it does meet my cuteness standards!!!

Sweetie made Minion Cupcakes. You know, modeled after the minions from the movie "Despicable Me". Darn cute characters--they definitely stole the show in the 2nd movie.

Vague directions...

Make cupcakes, allow to cool, and frost with desired frosting. These are a vanilla cake, with lemon frosting.

For the minions, use half of a cream-filled snack cake (ok, we all know them as Twinkies), piped with black details (hair, mouth, and goggles). Eyes can be made from white candies (Smarties will work), but we cheated and bought candy eyeballs from the cake decorating aisle of the store.

Shared them at work. Lots of folks stopped by just to admire them, and they made people smile all day long.

So many months have passed since my last Project Report, I can't hardly remember what has taken place. I think, basically, not much got accomplished in the spring. Some idle sewing. Some mending. A little progress here and there on long-term projects.

It wasn't until June/July, and the flurry of activity for the County Fair, that I got some things done.

Started *and* finished: Oakie backpack; Oakie board shorts and visor.

Finally finished: Nancy Drew mystery cube.

And, in the discard pile: 5 UFO's. They are pictured here so I can remember--all were significant alterations or restyling of garments. Most were started so long ago that the garment is now hopelessly outdated. Yay for housecleaning in the UFO pile!

For August, the month is already almost half done. Where does the time go? My goals are to finish the backlog of buck-a-block BOTM, get another 10 blocks finished for Sweetie's t-shirt quilt, and make the next whatnot for the Barnyard.

Well, another month has come and gone, another Buck-a-block pattern graces my sewing room, and I am now officially behind.

July pattern is "Wild Goose Chase" from Judy Hopkins' book 501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks (That Patchwork Place). I have always loved flying geese, and this arrangement of them flying into the opposite corners is particularly pleasing to my geometry-teacher sensibilities.

Again, this month's fabric doesn't have enough contrast between the medium and dark hues. I may have to be a rebel and substitute a fabric from my stash (ooh--fabric auditions! My favorite part!)

Also, I took a summer vacation to the east coast and was totally enamored of the dragonflies that were omnipresent. (Do we not have dragonflies in Oregon? How have I not noticed this?) So, to commemorate my summer travels, I was planning to make a paper-pieced dragonfly. Do you suppose it would look ok as the center of this block? (Or would it be too much? I have a tendency to over-complicate things. Always.)

The shop sample shows this month's suggested border. Kinda cute.

I will be around for August's buck-a-block date, so I have incentive to complete this block in the next 2 weeks. (Note that I am not required to complete all my unfinished blocks by that date--just this one. Good thing: 4 unfinished/unstarted blocks in 2 weeks might be too much pressure for my lazy summer sensibilities.)